“Sorry. She mentioned a brother Connor, but I didn’t put you two together,” Ethan stated.
“Now you know. So I ask again, what the fuck do you want with my sister?” Falciano barked.
“To talk to her. And actually, I’m worried. Did you know she’s no longer the manager at the hotel?” Ethan asked.
“No. When did that happen?” he asked.
“I don’t know. We were together about a week ago, and she was still the manager then. I need to talk to her, find out what happened.”
“If you’re so close to my sister, then why don’t you have her number?” Falciano asked.
“Where we were staying, there was no need or use for cell phones. When she left, she was in a rush to get back to Miami and I didn’t ask for it.” He didn’t need to tell Connor about their argument. Hopefully if he called his sister, Kollette didn’t share it either.
“Ethan, I’m not sure what exactly is going on with your two, but before I give you her number, I need to talk to my step-father and find out what the hell happened. It makes no sense that she’s not the manager any longer.”
He had to agree, but her employment status wasn’t his first thought. Yet he understood why her brother would be concerned. It obviously was out of character for her.
“Falciano, I need to know. I have to talk to her,” he said firmly.
“I’ll call you back within the hour. But if she doesn’t want to speak to you, I expect you to respect that. If not, you’re going to answer to me, understood?”
Ethan wasn’t afraid of Falciano. But right now he was holding the cards. “Got it.”
Kollette paced the floor. She had no idea why Ethan wanted to see her so badly, but she knew it wasn’t a good sign. She’d had a stressful week and adding more to it wasn’t what she was looking for. But if he had gone through all this effort to find her, she might as well listen to what he had to say.
She looked at her watch. He was supposed to be there almost an hour ago. What could be keeping him? Kollette was tempted to call and see if maybe he’d changed his mind. It actually would be a relief if he had, because her nerves were getting the better of her. Since when did she get jittery?
Maybe when I stopped being able to predict what was coming next.
Somehow her life had just been turned upside down in only two weeks. Nothing was the same and she had realized it as soon as she’d returned to the hotel. Something was different and it wasn’t the building. It was her and she couldn’t figure out how to get back to who she was before her trip.
It was most evident when she met with her father. Granted he was thrilled to see her back home safe and sound, but it didn’t take long for him to dive right into business mode. She wasn’t as quick to do so and he noticed it too. So when he started asking a bunch of questions about the Potters place, she assumed it was because he was trying to figure out what had changed her. But the more she had spoken about it, the deeper she got into the details, she noticed a change in her father as well. He wasn’t seeing the Potters as anything more than his next huge expansion.
She practically begged and pleaded with him to drop it. That they didn’t need the Potters place. That she could go and find someplace more suitable for his luxury rustic lodge. Kollette normally would’ve been so supportive of whatever decision her father made. Not this one. She tried explaining to him what that place meant to the Potters. She even told him how Mabel spent hours teaching her how to cook. But it fell on deaf ears. His answer was he’d make it worth it to them to leave. Eventually she had to stop talking, because all it seemed to do was make him want it even more.
Kollette loved her father, but when Ralph Sommers had his mind set on something, there was no reasoning with him. Even if she had the type of money it would take to block his new conquest, she couldn’t go against her father. Kollette was stuck in the middle, between people she cared about, and no matter what, someone was going to lose. She couldn’t be part of what he was about to do.
Even now, she couldn’t believe what she’d done. It had been a snap decision. She walked into her father’s office and handed him her resignation. Kollette wasn’t sure what she had expected him to do, maybe reconsider what he was doing and think of Kollette’s feelings first. Instead, he hugged her, told her how much he loved her, and that his door was always open. She could come back anytime if she wanted.
She could’ve stayed living at the hotel, it wasn’t like her father was putting her out on the street. But she needed a vacation, a real one, where she could think. Kollette had no idea what she was going to do now. Going to work for one of her father’s competitors wasn’t going to happen either. It’s like she had the world at her fingertips, she just didn’t know what she wanted to grab. There were things she knew she could cross off the list, cooking being one of them.
Don’t think about cooking.
It was only going to make her sad all over again. Mabel was never going to forgive her. Neither was Roy.
And Ethan will hate me forever.
It was very possible he’d caught wind of her father’s plans and wanted to come and confront her about them. If that was the case, Ethan was wasting his time. There was nothing she could do.
I’m as helpless in this as the Potters are.
There was a knock on the door and she sucked in her breath. He was here. Kollette thought she was ready for whatever was about to come. Not so much right now. But she might as well open the door and get this over with. Then Ethan could go back to whatever he was doing and she could as well.
Holding her breath, she slowly opened the door. Ethan wasn’t standing there with the hard look that he had the last time she’d seen him. Instead he was holding a bouquet of flowers.
“Ethan, what…what is this?” she asked
He held them out to her, “A peace offering? I’m here to tell you that I’m sorry.”